Another rest day in Dortmund. Two rest days in such a short tournament (7 rounds) seems a lot and is unusual. I think 4+3 rounds would be enough, instead of 2+2+3 system.
Anyway, all games are now annotated. I took the annotations from ChessVibes. I don't know who annotates them but Shipov, Landa, Tyomkin and some Peter are mentioned as a refference.
Yes, Leko was the most constant. Ivanchuck made a strong finish with two wins in last rounds. Gustafsson who was already seen as a winner by some ended up in 5th place. Van Wely took a beating in this tournament, and Kramnik will also be disapointed by the performance in "his" tournament. He will drop to the 6th place on the provissional live rating list.
Yes, many have said that Van Wely has spent too much time playing poker and not enough time playing chess...
Although Kramnik did better than Van Wely, his standing in this will be a blow to his confidence. (Then again, I'm a bit biased... I'm still upset over his "I have lent Anand the Crown" remark).
I am also rooting for Anand but he will have a mountain to climb. Kramnik is an extremly hard nut to crack in a match. He was given no chances against Kasparov, was given very few chances to win the last game against Leko, was a clear underdog going into a unification match against Topalov, but he suceeded on all three ocassions. Almost every GM's say that Kramnik has a very profound chess understanding (perhaps even deeper than Kasparov) and that, while they look dry and boring, you can learn a lot by studying his games. They also point out that he lacks fighting spirit and the drive to push himself and his opponents to the limits. Thats why he will never be a great tournament player. But in matches it's a whole other thing. So I wouldn't write Kramnik off yet.
There was a reason why Kasparov insisted to take the 16 year old Kramnik to the 1992 olympiad (where he shone) and that he chose him for the world championship match. He considered him somewhat as his succesor even before he defeated him in 2000.
